


The Terrifying Rarity of Truth

by Magnetism_bind



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Angst and Feels, Bonding, Drinking, Emotionally Repressed, F/M, Feelings Realization, Grief/Mourning, Love Confessions, M/M, Memories, Or the start of something new, Pre-Poly, Season 4 fic, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 08:10:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17076611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magnetism_bind/pseuds/Magnetism_bind
Summary: While Silver's presumed dead, Flint and Madi share their grief.When Silver returns from the dead, they grow to realize they could share something more.





	The Terrifying Rarity of Truth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aquafolie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquafolie/gifts).



> This is a TERRIBLE summary, and for that I apologize. While this isn't really the power couple fic you requested, I hope you still enjoy it! Happy Holidays!

 

Flint had carried the bottle out with him to the beach with every intention of emptying it of its last drop, but once he had sunk down into the sand, it stood forgotten beside him. He watched the waves darken into dusk, letting the feeling settle deep into his body, making his breath draw tight and slow.

It felt newly familiar, but he recognized it for what it was all the same. Grief. Loss. Rage, but a weary rage buried under years of old anger and denial. And beyond that there was more anger, even now, at Silver himself. He didn't want to grieve Silver; he hadn't wanted to lose him in the first place.

Not before...His thumb stroked the hilt of his knife absently as his eyes continued to follow the beckoning waves. Not before he had a chance...

It wasn't so much a sound (for she made no sound upon the sand) that alerted him to her presence. It was the feeling of being observed, quietly, and respectfully, as she allowed him the space for his own grief.

That in of itself was absurd, Flint told himself, for Silver had never been his to grieve.

But he had been hers.

He turned his head, nodding at the sand beside him. "You're welcome to sit if you like."

"Forgive me, I have no desire to intrude."

"You're not intruding on anything." 

After a moment she accepted and sank down on the sand, folding her legs neatly beneath her skirts. Her face was impassive, or would have seemed so, to anyone not familiar with years of reining in one's emotions. Flint knew that look keenly. He wondered what it was like for her, to be in this position. He wondered what it was like to be able to mourn openly, and yet still have the self-possession and control not to give sway to unbearable loss. 

Possibly he was reading too much into Silver's and hers relationship. Perhaps they had merely taken comfort in each for a spell, and nothing more. Perhaps... perhaps he didn't want her to have to carry the burden of such grief already, when she had already carried so many others. 

 

 *  *  *

 

"That bottle looks as though it were meant to be drunk, and yet it has not been touched."

 Madi spoke after the silence had stretched endlessly out upon the waves. She still wasn't sure she had made the right decision, in joining Flint on the beach. But she couldn't stay in the hut, she couldn't speak to the others. She had done all her necessary duties for now, and now, that there was room to breathe, she didn't know what to do with the breath she still carried in her lungs. What was breath when...

She didn't know how it was possible to feel so much for a man she only met a short time ago. It made no sense, but there was the feeling all the same, heavy in her chest, like straps drawn too tightly over her shoulders, a weight she couldn’t escape even if she had wanted to do so.

Madi folded her hands in her lap, gazing down at them. These hands that had touched Silver, had drawn sounds from him, soft and intimate, these hands had cupped his face and held him close, and brushed back those eternally obnoxious curls from his brow. How was all of that gone?

She stole a sideways look at Flint, who sat there, head bowed, shoulders hunched, his eyes focused unseeing on the waves ahead of them. She had no other to be alone with in this feeling, except for Flint. He was the only one who understood.

"You're welcome to it, if you like." Flint inclined his head towards the bottle. He didn't expect her to accept. She could tell that much.

Slowly Madi reached out and took the bottle. She pulled the cork free and raised it to her lips, ignoring his gaze as he turned to look at her curiously.

"You're right." Flint murmured after a moment. "I brought it out here to drink and..." He drifted off, apparently at a loss for words. It was a new side to him, and Madi wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, or Flint himself. Was he doing this on purpose, to gain her sympathy and perhaps get her to join closer forces with him? Or was he genuinely grieving the loss of his friend and possibly more? She made a wager with herself as to which it was. 

"Sometimes it's not worth drinking to forget, especially when it will still be there afterwards."

Flint cocked his head at her quizzically. "It?"

"Whatever it is, you're trying to forget.” Madi answered. She took another sip of the rum, not entirely sure what she wanted to prove with this or whether she was trying to prove anything at all. She didn’t want to forget Silver, but she was exhausted of feeling so much.

 

 *  *  *

 

The sun sank slowly down over the waves and slowly Flint let the weariness slip away. He took a sip from the bottle and then they shared it back and forth.

“What was it about him?” Madi sounded curious as she asked.

Flint took another sip and wiped his mouth before handing the bottle back to her. “What was what about him?” There were many things about Silver that struck him. He couldn’t narrow it down to just one, not without some difficulty at least.

“That made you choose him as quartermaster.”

“Oh…the men voted on that.”

“Yes, but if you hadn’t wanted him by your side, he would not be there now.” The present tense lingered in the air between them and Flint chose to let it stay, rather than being cruel and reminding her that Silver was at the bottom of the sea instead.

“True,” he acknowledged reluctantly. “It was…he was…” How to explain how Silver was with the men? How he charmed and irritated and sweetened them as he had done with Flint? That he was a liar but he was also honest in his lies and that was rare.

“I’ve never met anyone like him.” He said simply at last. “I’ve met liars before, and he is that. I’ve met thieves before, and he is that too. And I’ve met storytellers, for I am one myself, and he is most certainly that. But it’s the way he has about him, the manner in which he reaches in and discovers what it is that you want to hear, what will make you listen to the tale he’s about to tell, how he offers it to you in such a telling that you come to believe it’s what you wanted to hear all along…” He shook his head. “I’ve never met anyone who could do that as he can.”

There was silence save for a lone gull crying out over the waves. Flint glanced at Madi who was looking at the water. Belatedly Flint went back over what he had just said, to a woman who had no doubt heard Silver’s brand of lies from his own tongue, in more intimate circumstances than sitting on a beach.

“I realize that…doesn’t make him sound trustworthy in the slightest.” He cringed slightly at the stupidity of his own response. If she told that to her mother, the queen might rethink their treaty with the pirate crew and with good reason.

Madi raised her eyes to meet his gaze. “And yet you trusted him.”

There was no question in her words. She was simply confirming what she had seen in observing Silver and Flint together.

“Yes.” Flint confirmed. “I trusted him.” There had been times of course when he hadn’t. He thought of the way Silver had laid bare his secrets and deceit in that boat on the open water, with no guarantee that Flint wouldn’t simply kill him and toss his lying carcass overboard. Silver had orchestrated all of that, and then gave it up, to stay with the Walrus and her crew.

 _And to stay with you_ …a small voice in Flint’s head whispered to him and he couldn’t deny it, even if he didn’t acknowledge it.

“Tell me about how you learned he was a thief.” Madi tipped the bottle back once more.

Flint let out a chuckle. “You mean practically the day we met?”

They watched the sunset together, sharing memories of Silver back and forth. The more they spoke, the more they laughed, and for a brief time, the grief was set aside, if not entirely forgotten.

 

*  *  *

 

He was alive. Silver was alive. Flint felt as though he couldn’t breathe. There was relief there, distantly but there all the same. He recognized that, but it was so removed from him. He felt curiously numb as though all feeling had been stripped from him.

But if his mind had chosen to distance itself from this moment, his body had not. He stepped forward and reached for Silver, drawing him up to his feet.

Silver laughed a little as he steadied himself in Flint’s grasp, and then Flint’s arms went around him naturally, as though that was always the way he had planned on greeting Silver when he returned to them. Flint breathed in the sea-salt scent of his hair, and the warmth of Silver’s body this close to his sent a rush of feeling through him so forcefully it nearly sent him to his knees.

He coughed and pulled away brusquely. “So you’re alive then.”

Silver stood there, blinking at him. “It would appear so.”

There was a question in his eyes but Flint held no answer for that or anything else Silver might have wanted to ask. Instead he nodded to the others.

“We should be on our way back.”

There was someone else who needed to know Silver was alive after all.

 

*  *  *

 

Madi buried her face in Silver’s shirt after their lips had finally broken apart, partly because she needed a moment to take this in, to hide the joy shining on her face. So used was she to staying calm and composed, her mother’s daughter, always distant, always a little apart. But this was one time she wasn’t able to hold back completely, and truly she didn’t care.

She looked up at Silver, letting the joy spill out of her. “I thought I had lost you.”

His arms around her tightened and she felt the weight of her words tremble through him, as he understood how much that loss had affected her. Over his shoulder she caught sight of Flint still standing apart, silently watching them, his eyes melancholy in their gaze..

Madi started to raise her hand, to bring him over to share this joy. But instead Flint ducked his head abruptly and turned away.

 

*  *  *

 

He was nowhere to be found in the camp that night and Madi rationalized it as Flint wanting to give them privacy to enjoy Silver’s return. But that didn’t mean she didn’t notice the disappointment in Silver’s eyes when he glanced around the fire and saw no sign of Flint.

He made no mention of it though, and that night when they lay in each other’s arms, Madi confessed if only to herself that she was grateful for the time together.

 

*  *  * 

 

All the same the next day when it became apparent that Flint was still steering clear of the hut, and Silver, she found herself at a loss. Silver was alive and instead of celebrating that, Flint was avoiding him.

At last Madi caught of Flint heading into the woods to hunt, so she followed him, keeping pace.

“I take it you’re following me for a reason.” Flint breached the silence eventually.

 “He does not know!” She blurted out eventually, trying to make sense of this, reason with it, with Flint, but there was no making sense of this. It was though two points keep missing each other, slipping past one another in the dark of night.

“Why should he know?”

“Because you thought he was dead, and so I did. Because he’s alive now and that is something to be celebrated.”

“I had assumed you and he were celebrating.” Flint said stiffly.

“And because of that you will not tell him? You would rather keep this secret until it smothers you?”

Flint laughed, not unkindly, at that. “I have kept many secrets throughout my life,” He told her. “And I am still standing.”

“But how many are as heavy as this? As hard to keep? When you could tell him-“

“You think it’s the secret that is hard!” Flint shook his head swiftly. “No. Not by a long shot. Having him know, having him consider every word before he speaks. Before he looks at me?” He would not put that on Silver, because he didn’t want to fucking deal with it himself.

“You think he does not do that now?” She countered, her hands on her hips, gazing up into his face.

“Not like before. Not like in the beginning.” He wasn’t willing to lose that intimacy with Silver; it had come too hard won for that. The early days when they had stepped so warily around each other, moving in close only to draw back again at the first hint of the way the darkness between them melted seamlessly until it held no distance at all.

Madi stopped then. “You think he does not love you back?”

Why did it hurt so to hear those words spoken so bluntly in the open air? They were no worse than the words Flint had told himself a hundred times. They were far kinder, truth be told. There was no reason for Silver to love him. There was no reason why he ever would.

He swallowed dryly over the unspoken words in his throat, leaving them there. Madi didn’t move, still waiting for some kind of response.

“What is there to be gained by telling him?” He said at last, so softly it was barely uttered at all.

“You might just be surprised.” With that she left him there, alone in the trees.

 

*  *  *

 

She hadn’t thought him such a coward. It was strange to realize how much it stung to realize that. This man she had seen go before her queen mother and plead the case of the pirates in a way that even the queen had understood the necessity and importance of the proposed treaty. Madi had never met a man like him before and she knew she never would again.

Why would he balk at the thought of telling Silver?

Madi came to a halt, catching her breath for a moment. The forest was so still around her, save for the sounds of birds calling to each other from tree to tree.

She hadn’t planned on telling Silver how she felt about him either for that matter. It had seemed too new, too daring. She hadn’t realized it was that true and strong within her until one day, a day like any other before it. They had been talking together in the afternoon as they had started to do. He wanted to know as much about her life on the island, and the maroon camp itself, the better to make this treaty between the camp and the pirates succeed. Madi understood this. It was a strategic plan and she even respected him for it.

What she had not expected was to enjoy these conversations, and come to cherish the way the Silver would let his gaze linger on her at times, like he was trying to make sense of something he didn’t quite understand.

He had let his hand brush her knee once, but nothing more, and that faint hesitant touch had burned Madi’s skin like fire even though all his fingers touched were her skirts.

They had been talking for hours and this time Madi couldn’t keep her gaze from Silver’s mouth, or the way his eyes danced. But he had made no other overture other than that brief touch that once, and finally she realized why.

“I think-“ Silver started and then his words fell away as Madi took his hand.

He looked down at it, her hand holding his, confidently, the warmth of her palm pressing into his, her fingers sliding between his.

“Madi…”

“You have not said anything because of my mother.” She said softly. “Because of the treaty…because of who I am.”

Silver held his gaze steady as he looked at her, searching her face. “Yes.” He admitted at last. “Neither of us can take the risk if something were to jeopardize that, and Flint would kill me if-“

She raised her other hand to cover his mouth, letting the warmth of his breath brush across her palm. “Flint is not king here. My mother is a reasonable woman. I do not take these matters lightly and I know the treaty matters a great deal to both of us.”

Silver made a soft sound of frustration but she wasn’t finished yet, still holding her hand there.

“But that is not a good reason to stay silent.” She looked directly into his eyes. “If you have no desire for me, that is acceptable, but if that is the case I would like to know.” With that she lowered her hand at last, waiting.

Silver raised his hand and ever so gently, brushed his knuckles along the curve of her face, as though he half accepted this gesture to be rejected. When Madi said nothing, he leaned in, cupping her face with both hands. “If you think I hold no desire for you, you are not the woman I know you to be.”

With that he kissed her, his hands holding her close and firm. Madi’s arms went around him, drawing him to her just as fiercely. She had no breath in her as their mouths met once more, but she wanted to laugh with delight.

 

*  *  *

 

Madi clutched her stomach as a wave of grief rippled through her. She was thankful she was still in the forest and no one could see the tears in her eyes. There was no reason to weep now. Silver was alive. But all that grief was still within her, the knowledge of what losing him would do to her one day, was not something she could simply forget.

That was how it had been with them. Once Silver understood how she felt, how she wanted him in return there had been no holding back.

She wanted Flint to have that too, but deep within her, she did understand why he had held back. It would be hard if Silver didn’t love him in return, but it was so obvious, so clear to Madi that he did, so why could Flint not see what was right before his eyes?

 

*  *  *

 

“What is it?” Silver asked a third time. There was clearly something she wasn’t telling him, and he couldn’t figure it out. She was glad he was back; he could tell that much. She wanted him as much as ever. That too was evident from last night.

So what was it? What would keep her from speaking openly to him? She always had before.

“Tell me.” He whispered, and if there was a pleading note in his voice he couldn’t help that, nor did he regret it. She was the only he could show any sign of weakness to now…her and Flint.

She bit her lip and shook her head. “’I am sorry. I cannot.”

Silver started to turn away, not sure of what to say anymore and then slowly he turned back. “Whenever you are ready, I am here.”

Madi’s eyes filled with tears and she flung her arms around him, pressing her face into his shirt with a sigh.

“What…what did I say?” Silver stammered, and then heard it again. _I am here._

“Shhh, it’s true. I’m here, Madi. I’m here.”

It was not her secret to tell, but oh how Madi wished Flint would speak to him! How was she supposed to go about her day and just let this lie? How was she supposed to pretend that everything was all right. It should have been all right. He was alive.

 

*  *  *

 

Everything was fine, Silver told himself. He was back. Hands was settling in with the crew, or at least he hadn’t killed any of the other men yet.

But Flint…he’d expected, well, something more from Flint, and instead there was an absence. Flint was elsewhere, helping the men, seeing to things that needed to be done, always busy, and nowhere near Silver.

He’d nearly forgotten the feeling of being near Flint, the sensation of that intimacy just standing shoulder to shoulder with the man. And now Flint was acting as though they were…what? Silver didn’t know how to categorize this vagueness. It wasn’t the bristling animosity of their early days, nor the slow growing, grudging reliance upon each other, and then…the friendship. It had been friendship, Silver certain of that, though he was hard pressed to name another true friend in his life. Muldoon had been one certainly, but not in the same way as Flint. He could talk to Flint like no other. And the secrets the man had told him, the intimacies he had shared and the way they fit together, in mind and deed…. He didn’t want to lose that, but he wasn’t sure of how to reclaim his lost footing when Flint was acting as though no misstep had ever been taken in the first place.

 

*  *  *

 

Flint knew he should resume Silver’s fencing lessons now that he was back, but he delayed, for what reason he wasn’t even sure he knew. Simply having Silver alone like that again, being that close to Silver, would drive him mad.

And yet he had told Madi he carried this easily. He laughed, the sound breaking the silence around him. He hadn’t thought it was a lie at the time, and yet…perhaps it was. Or perhaps things had simply changed.

He wasn’t sure how that had happened, but since speaking with, and seeing how she thought he should speak to Silver, it reminded him of Miranda, and those early days when she had clearly guessed his feelings for Thomas had deepened past friendship, and tried to nudge him delicately towards a confession. He had done his best to ignore the hints, because he hadn’t been able to even think of daring such a thing. And yet it had been Miranda’s insistence that it was fine, and worth the risk, that had made him respond when Thomas had finally made the first move.

It would have been easy to stay there, reflecting on the past all day. But now that he had thought about it, having admitted his feelings already to Madi…there was another who deserved to be told.

 

*  *  *

  
It was the end of the day. Flint stood waiting on the rocks down when Silver joined him at last.

The days since his return had passed one by one and yet Flint’s heart still quickened at the sound of his approach, at the sudden and sharp knowledge that Silver was truly alive and would be standing there when he turned his head.

“You sent word you wanted to see me?” Silver stopped. “It’s a little late for a fencing lesson. The light is already going.” They had only just started the fencing lessons before Silver had been lost, but he remembered fully well how particular Flint had been about the light.

“It wasn’t fencing I wanted you for,” Flint said absently.

“Then what did you want me for?”

At that Flint turned to face him. Silver wore no coat, the soft brown shirt of his was open at the throat, his hair pulled back as he gazed at Flint expectantly.

“I had no intention of telling you this,” he began at last. “Madi seems to think it’s necessary if our partnership is to continue and I see some reason to that but.”

Silver had drawn back a little, balancing his weight evenly on the metal leg as he looked at him. “Madi thinks? What is it that Madi thinks I need to know but you don’t seem to want to tell me in spite of whatever reason you found?”

“That I care for you.” Flint said gruffly.

Silver stared at him.

There was utter silence. Distantly Flint thought he heard the waves on the beach. The sound of the camp behind them. But perhaps he imagined those. The silence swam around him, making him aware of his own heartbeat, too loud and hollow in his ears.

“What?” Silver said finally.

“What do you mean what?” Flint frowned. He’d thought he’d been quite clear for once.

“Why would you say that?” Silver look unbearably uncomfortable as though he’d rather be anywhere else in the world than here listening to Flint right now.

“I’m trying to tell you I love you!” Flint exploded.

“And you chose now to say this? Now on the eve of a war…” Silver shook his head. “You didn’t have to do this. I am capable of going forth into this melee, without this…incentive on your behalf.”

“It’s not…” Flint faltered in the face of such utter conviction. Silver sounded so certain, so utterly sure that Flint was simply telling him this to be…kind, of all things? To persuade him into what he had already agreed to do.

 “You truly think I’d say this, simply to motivate you?” It was Flint’s turn to stare at Silver.

Silver shifted uncomfortably. “Well.”

“For fuck’s sake.” Flint walked off. Madi had been wrong. Some secrets never needed to spoken aloud.

Silver was left standing there, staring after him.

 

*  *  *

  
Night had slipped down finally. Silver watched the lamps flicker down low. Nassau in the distance grew quieter. The days ahead would be lengthy and hard, and he wondered, not for the first time, what he had gotten himself into here on this accursed island. If he could meet his past self now, Silver stifled a laugh at the thought. _Why would you do this? That_ version of him would ask. _Why would you walk willingly into this war? Instead of running in the opposite direction?_

There was no good simple answer. Silver wasn’t even sure there was a good answer to war. He only knew why he had done it. There were the more vaguer reasons,  and the more specific.  One of the reasons was beside him now, and the other was…elsewhere.

Madi stroked his knee, a comforting gesture now since he knew she didn’t judge him by his lack of leg.

“He said it was because of you.” It wasn’t exactly what he meant to say but he couldn’t help it. He kept focusing on the fact that it was because of Madi that Flint had finally confessed, and not the fact that Flint loved him. Because if he said those words aloud, if he let himself truly hear what Flint had said...his hands pressed into the bed beside him as he stared up at the roof.

“What he told you?” Madi said neutrally. She had a pretty good idea what Flint might have told Silver, or at least what she hoped he had said.

Silver gave a brief nod.

Madi sighed. “I take it, it didn’t go well?”

Silver made a noise somewhere between a snort and a laugh. Then he simply sighed, and rested an arm behind his head, staring at the ceiling. He didn’t know if he could talk to Madi about this, not when he hadn’t truly talked to Flint yet.

“I don’t know why he said that.” He murmured. Why would Flint tell him that?

 

*  *  *

 

Madi felt the empty space beside Silver as much as him. It was evident that Silver still missed him. She stroked his hip, kissing his back.

“I am sorry.”

Silver shrugged slightly.

“I thought…you cared for him as much as he cared for you.”

Silver turned his head to look at her. “What’re you saying?”

Madi drew back, gazing at him carefully. “Are you not saying that you told Flint you didn’t share that?”

Silver pushed himself up into s sitting position, gripping the bed. “Of course I’m not saying that.” Christ, he almost wanted to laugh again.

“I…” His knuckles, bone white against the rough blanket, refused to let go until he’d forced the words out. “I love him as I love my own survival, I want to carry his heart with mine, and keep him from dangers unknown, even when he walks willingly into them.”

He stopped, the words halting abruptly on his tongue. Almost fearfully he turned to look at Madi.

She brushed her fingers along his chin, bringing it up to her mouth. “You would not be the man I know so well, if you did not love him thus.”

Silver kissed her, feeling the relief shatter the last bit of trepidation in his heart.

 

 *  *  *

 

It was a short while later that there was a knock at the door. Madi glanced at Silver who shrugged. She sat up and went over to the door, opening it.

Flint stood in the doorway. He nodded to Madi then glanced at Silver, who sat up at the sight of him.

“A word outside.” Flint nodded to him and stepped back into the darkness.

Silver reached for his crutch and went to the door. He paused to look at Madi questioningly.

“Bring him back with you.” Madi whispered, her hand brushing his shoulder before he stepped outside. "If he will come."

 

 *  *  *

 

Silver followed Flint a short distance from the hut and stopped abruptly as Flint turned to face him.

“You think I confessed what I said earlier to motivate you towards some feat of leadership.” Flint spoke quietly, but the words were steady in the dark. “You should know by now that it’s true, I will say what’s necessary to get things done. But this…I would never lie about this.”

Even in the dark Silver was desperately aware of the weight of Flint’s gaze. How was it possible for the man to fix him in place like this, keeping him frozen as the words slowly penetrated his mind.

“Over our time together, I’ve…” Flint caught himself. “Fuck.” He reached out and clasped Silver’s face, tilting it upward.

His mouth was hesitant upon Silver’s, speaking forth the words Flint had flung at him once, and clearly couldn’t bring himself to say again. And yet when they drew apart at last, Flint half sighed, resting his forehead against Silver’s, his thumb brushing the nape of Silver’s neck. “I never meant to, but I love you all the same.”

Silver drew a shaky break. “I think…” he was aware of Flint practically holding his breath, a few inches away from him. “You should come back to the hut with me and Madi.”

For a moment he feared Flint would refuse, that it would take more than this to make him see it was true, but at last, Flint murmured.

“All right.”

 

 *  *  *

 

"Forgive me, I have no desire to intrude." Flint’s eyes met Madi’s as he stepped inside the door once more and she answered him.

"You're not intruding on anything." 

Flint nodded, his gaze flicking to Silver, clearly waiting for something more.

Silver simply sat down, setting his crutch aside at the foot of the bed. He sat there a moment, and then pulled at his shirt, removing it, so he was clad only in loose breeches.

He stretched out in the center of the bed, looking at Flint.

Flint sat on one side, half watching Madi as she finished reading the hut for sleep. She brought the last candle over to the bedside, letting it flicker a moment, before she blew it out.

In the darkness it was easier to breathe. Flint listened to the sounds of the night, and the still in the cabin. The warmth of the people next to him.

He hadn’t expected Silver to say it back to him, even now. He wasn’t sure what he expected.

Slowly Silver drifted closer, even more slowly Flint raised his hand to stroke Silver hair.

The hut lay dark and still  At last Flint looked down at the shape of Silver sleeping between them and the way Madi's hand rested across him. Slowly he reached over and took her hand, winding his fingers through hers holding them close. There was a rare sort of peace to this. It was new, after everything he had been through, after everything they had been through. But he wanted to know it better. He closed his eyes and breathed in the silence.

“I love you too, you know.”

It was the softest of confessions, whispered into Flint’s shirt, but he heard it all the same, felt Silver’s breath against him, and drew him closer, holding him all through the night.

 

*  *  *

 

In the morning Madi rose early and slipped out of the cabin, leaving them sleeping. She had duties to attend to, and besides the conversation between the two of them wasn’t finished yet. She knew that much.

 

*  *  *

 

Flint rolled over and looked at Silver who was gazing back at him. Slowly a smile crept over Flint’s face. He reached out and stroked his cheek. He leaned in, cupping Silver to him naturally, kissing the side of his neck. “I think she left us alone on purpose.”

“Do you?” Silver said sarcastically and Flint muffled his laughter in Silver’s curls. The sound died away and Silver found Flint above him, gazing down at him with an expression he could only categorize as fond, and yet…somehow there was still part of him that didn’t quite believe it was true. Even now.

“Did you truly not know?” Flint said gruffly. “That I loved you?”

Silver sucked in a breath, and released it. There it was again, that statement. Flint simply uttering it, made it so. Once he wouldn’t have believed him swearing it; now he was powerless to resist the truth in his voice.

“How could I have known?” was all he said.

Flint laughed and rolled over on his back. “I would have thought it was obvious.” He said dryly. “Were you not charmed by my insults and the way I clearly didn’t trust you?”

“Well, now that you mention it…” Silver’s eyes danced. “There was a certain something that intrigued me from the moment you pressed me up against the rocks.”

“Oh?” Flint raised an eyebrow. “Is that right?”

He leaned over, reaching for Silver, pulling him atop. Silver rested his arms on Flint’s chest.

“Yes.” He thought back to that night. He had been terrified that he was about to die, thoroughly relieved that Flint had been the one to find him, and not the long-haired pirate with the gravelly voice. Somehow Silver didn’t think he would have been as receptive to the deal Silver had proposed. And yet at the same time, there had been something exhilarating about seeing Flint truly see him, as much as Silver was letting himself be seen then.

Flint’s hands slid down Silver’s backside, pulling him flush against himself. Silver leaned down and kissed his mouth, pressing back against him.

“Do you believe me now?” Flint whispered.

“Well, I do believe you have some sort of feeling for me.” Silver grinned, pressing against him more.

Flint chuckled, and merely rolled them over so that Silver was cradled beneath him.

“That is one term for it.”

 

 *  *  *

 

When Madi returned, hours later, she found they had fallen asleep again, Silver lying next to Flint, his breeches loose around his hips, his face half buried in Flint’s side, his hand splayed possessively over Flint’s bare chest.

She stood there a moment in the doorway, gazing at them. It had taken both so little, and a great deal, for them to reach this point. She hoped it wasn’t in vain.

Then she turned and left them there undisturbed. There were things to be done, yes, but let them sleep a while longer.

 

 *  *  *

 

Flint found her later by the trees, ostensibly reading, but he knew the difference between pretending to read, and simply taking time to think. He waited a moment before clearing his throat, and letting Madi acknowledge his presence.

“You’re truly all right with this?”

“It doesn’t matter if I’m all right with it or not, we have already entered this war.”

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

Madi’s lips twitched and she looked down at her book for a moment before she looked up at him. “I do.”

Flint waited, and she was silent a moment longer before she spoke.

“You care about his happiness, and you even, I think, care for mine, which is why you asked that. And that is one of the reason I can tell you truthfully, yes. “

She rose and looked up at Flint unflinchingly. “We have lost him once. I would do not so again, not when the answer between us is so simple.”

“And that is?” Flint fell into step beside her.

“That it takes much heart to love a man such as John Silver.” Madi murmured, “And between us, we might have enough.”

It was Flint’s lips that twitched that time, as he nodded in agreement. “I think you might be right.”

 

*  *  *

 

Far off near the camp, Silver watched them walking back. They were perfectly in sync, his captain, his Madi. He should have known that would happen, and perhaps he had.

He glanced down at the crutch he leaned upon. What did they see in him? These strong-willed leaders that he loved? How had it come to this?

 _One day they might see you for what you truly are,_ the voice inside him, small as ever, whispered. _A coward, a liar, a, survivor._

Perhaps that was true. Perhaps there would come a day when they no longer wanted or needed him by their side. But until that day came, he would be there, and if in turn, it befell to him to keep them safe, he already knew he would do whatever it took. If he was brave enough, in the end, to do such a thing for love.

He liked to think he would be.

Silver gripped his crutch, and moved forward to meet them on the path.

 


End file.
